Look, Konami, I get it. You’ve worked really hard on Pro Evolution Soccer. The gameplay looks very nice. In some cases I would say it’s as good as EA’s FIFA. But year after year, I play the other game for the entire season and I play yours in order to write this review. I’d be more than happy if you could release a product that would make me drop FIFA for PES, but I’m not seeing it.

I want to get the massive positive out of the way quickly because it’s pretty much irrelevant given everything that surrounds it: PES 2015 is sort offun. Where FIFA prides itself on being as realistic as possible — to its mild detriment — PES really is a fun gaming experience. Passes have a tendency to connect; players aren’t set back by the inanity of first-touch errors; and shots look dramatic, even electric most of the time.

But earlier this fall, I said similar things about EA’s NHL 15, a game I also haven’t spent much time with since I reviewed it. NHL is a fun game to play against friends, it’s a boring game to spend much time with otherwise because it offers the user so little. PES is in the same, weird boat.

Licensing is a huge issue. The English Premier League is, I’d wager, the most popular professional sports league in the world. Konami doesn’t want to pay for the league’s rights, so all it can do is rename the teams. Are you a Manchester City fan? Enjoy managing “Man Blue.” Arsenal? “North London.” Manchester United? Er, well, for some reason Konami has paid for the rights to United, so you can manage them against their famous Man Blue rivals. I don’t really care that the Champions League or the Europa League or even La Liga are in there — either you’re complete or you’re a second rate afterthought.

Speaking of which, you know what would be a marvellous way to not be an afterthought? Perhaps releasing your product a month ahead of FIFA instead of nearly two months later, which is also three months after the start of most of the European seasons kick off. At least get out of the gate a bit quicker and get some bang for the few bucks you’ve spent.

As for the rest, the menus are still clunky and slow, players seem to run out of energy around the 60-minute mark of every game, and fancy animations are a poor substitute for basic functionality. Maybe one year, Konami will get it right and PES will return to the throne. But for now: